


Checkmate

by anythingbutplatonic



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: 4x10, Blood Debts, Cute silliness, Episode Related, F/M, Fluff, Missing Scene Fic, episode reaction fic, in which Oliver is really bad at tic-tac-toe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-23
Updated: 2016-01-23
Packaged: 2018-05-15 19:40:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 943
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5797315
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anythingbutplatonic/pseuds/anythingbutplatonic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Felicity’s face fell, and he would have sworn to a God he wasn’t even sure he’d ever believed in that he felt his heart crack a little.</p>
<p>“But I don’t want to rest. I’m bored. And I want you to stay with me,” she replied, sadness creeping into her voice.</p>
<p>Episode reaction/missing scene fic for 4x10 "Blood Debts".</p>
            </blockquote>





	Checkmate

“Aha!” Felicity crowed triumphantly, striking out the diagonal line of X’s going from one corner of the page to the other. “I win, again.” She threw down her pencil with a flourish. “You suck at this game.”

“Maybe I let you win,” Oliver said cheekily, leaning back in his chair. “Have you considered that?”

“Nope,” she replied, grinning. “You’re just not very good at tic-tac-toe.”

Felicity sank back against her pillows again. Her pale face was more animated than it had been since he’d first arrived, hours ago; as the anesthesia had worn off and the shock of multiple surgeries receded, she’d become more alert, some of the colour returning to her cheeks, her eyes with more sparkle in them.  

She’d also announced that she was bored, and so they’d resorted to playing paper games on some napkins that Oliver had stolen from the hospital cafeteria when he’d gone to fulfill her request for strawberry Jell-O. She’d swiftly kicked his ass in three rounds of Hangman and five of tic-tac-toe, becoming happier and more at ease with each game she won. If he’d been trying to lose on purpose, it would have been worth it just to see the smile that lit up her exhausted features. 

As it happened, Felicity was right; he really was _that_  bad at tic-tac-toe. 

“Want to go again?” Felicity asked. “I think we still have some of those napkins left...”

He wanted to say yes. He wanted to tell her that he’d stay all night and into the next day, if that was what she wanted.She deserved as much time in the world as she wanted to ask of him; he owed her that much, to make up for his disappearing act. To make up for leaving her when she needed him the most.

Would the guilt ever stop burning in his throat every time he looked at her, prone in a hospital bed, a bed that she was only in because he hadn’t been tough enough on Damien Darhk when he’d had the chance?

But it was 1am, and while Felicity was waking up at last, which he was thoroughly grateful for, Oliver was starting to feel exhaustion pulling at his eyelids and sagging his shoulders. 

“I don’t think so, hon,” Oliver said softly, shaking his head. “It’s late. I should go home, and you need to rest.”

Felicity’s face fell, and he would have sworn to a God he wasn’t even sure he’d ever believed in that he felt his heart crack a little.

“But I don’t want to rest. I’m bored. And I want you to stay with me,” she replied, sadness creeping into her voice.

God, he didn’t want to leave her. Not now, not ever. He’d stay in that hospital room for the rest of his life, and be glad to do it. 

He glanced over towards the door of her room, to the hub of activity still going on outside. It was well past lights out, but he’d been able to pull some strings, and while most patients were sleeping by now, the hospital still worked on. “I don’t think your doctors will let me.”

“The doctors are stupid,” she mumbled, rolling her eyes at the ceiling. “Don’t they know I’m the future Mrs. Queen? I have the ring to prove it.” She stuck out her hand, showing him the diamond he’d replaced on her finger some hours ago. “Can we at least play one more game of tic-tac-toe before you have to leave? Just so I can know for sure that I’m better than you at it.” 

Oliver laughed, then, the warm sound filling the room and making Felicity’s smile widen. “Of course. But just one, okay?” 

“Yay!” 

Felicity pulled herself up onto her pillows a little, and set about carefully drawing a grid on the only napkin they had left. The used ones lay crumpled around her, covered in pencil doodles and random scribbling. On the corner of one, Oliver had written a message in the smallest handwriting he could manage; _I love you,_ followed by a smiley face. 

She was keeping that one. 

“Done!” she announced, handing him one of two pencils they’d been using. “May the best man win. Or woman, in this case, ‘cause I’m probably gonna kick your ass. I hope you’ve been practicing your loser’s speech.”

Oliver went first, then Felicity, her tongue poking out the corner of her mouth as she concentrated. Her childlike competitiveness was infectious, her happiness intoxicating; they soon found themselves warring over the square of paper between them, trying to knock each other’s pencils out of the way in order to get their marks down. Felicity was laughing, open and carefree, and it was almost as if they weren’t in that hospital room at all. 

In that fantasy, she didn’t have a permanent spinal cord injury, Damien Darhk didn’t exist, and they could get on with planning their impending wedding, happy and excited and looking to their future, instead of figuring out where their lives were headed now that they had been turned so violently upside down. 

“Yes!” Felicity half-shouted suddenly, and Oliver looked down at the paper to realize that she’d won, a decisive line running through the row of O’s he’d so carefully placed in the little squares, determined to out-smart her. 

But there was no such thing as out-smarting Felicity Smoak. He knew that by now. He wasn’t sure why he’d even bothered to try. 

“Checkmate,” she said smugly.  

“I love you,” he replied, as simple and straightforward as anything else he might have said, only it meant so much more. 

For better or for worse.


End file.
